Welcome back to the Look and Sound of Leadership, an ongoing series of

executive coaching tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace the way

you want to be perceived. I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today

we're talking about the sound of leadership and management.

Raco and I were exploring the differences between leadership and management.

During our conversation she wondered whether the two actually sound different.

I said to her, you seem pretty comfortable in both camps, Raco.

Does your version of leadership sound different from your version of management?

She gave a sad laugh.

Yeah.

When I think about management, I think of barking.

Do this, do that, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark, bark.

You're serious, I asked. Dead serious.

You remember we said management exists to address complexity?

Well, all that complexity is hard for me.

I get cranky doing that kind of work, so I'm all bark, bark, bark.

What would you do differently?

I asked.

Oh, you're gonna put it on me, are you?

She gave a sigh and stopped to think.

I loved Rako's willingness to think without knowing where it would take her.

She said, so we're trying to manage complexity, right?

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